Achievement Place, a community-based, residential treatment model for pre-deliquent and delinquent youths from 12 to 16 years of age, has been developed and experimentally researched over the past several years. Results to date suggest that the Achievement Place model may hold substantial promise for dealing effectively with this critical social problem. This proposal seeks funds to design and implement a research model and information gathering procedures for the formative and summative evaluation of the planned expansion of the Achievement Place treatment system. Following the proposed evaluation planning year, the evaluation plan will be implemented over the following three years in concert with the institution of Achievement Place facilities throughout the country. Objectives in four areas will be accomplished during the planning year: (a) site visits to 15 existing Achievement Place facilities and to the teacher-parent training facility; (b) analysis of five levels of criteria for assessing Achievement Place impact and development of criterion measurement procedures; (c) development of feasible evaluation methods, including selection of an evaluation sample, assignment of youths to either Achievement Place or alternative treatments, and methods of criterion data analysis, and (d) other tasks including design of a system for storage, retrieval, and analysis of evaluation information and preparation of a detailed proposal for the three-year evaluation of Achievement Place. The results of this evaluation research should (a) contribute to modifications of the Achievement Place model, (b) provide policy-relevant information so that planning in mental health might better deal with the delinquency problem, (c) indicate, in a relative sense, how Achievement Place compares with other treatment procedures, (d) be capable of guilding conclusions about how well Achievement Place accomplishes its own stated objectives, and (e) reflect organizational accomplishments in terms of impact on the structure and functioning of community agencies and changes in attitudes or expectations held by key policy makers in each community.